We all want Obama to embody a different kind of change - so how do you want it?
February 18th 2009 14:04
The blogosphere, the web, newspapers and magazines, TV-casting and film-making - heck, all the arts, sciences and every other discipline - have been exploding with tributes to impassioned dreams, hopes and idealisms. These texts are circulating all around the globe, and it seems everyone has something to say on the matter of Obama riding high on his historic election to the White House - whether you are an indie singer-songwriter like Ani DiFranco (who wrote the following:
DEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA:
I have received so many breathless letters myself and now it’s role reversal time. You have reawakened a disillusioned and passive electorate and begun healing racial wounds that have crippled us for centuries. I believe, like you do, that America today is not as intolerant and bitterly divided as we are encouraged to be by the mainstream media and the military industrial complex that dictates its messaging. It is my sincere hope that our national discourse will rise to your example and employ more humility and maturity in the political arena. I look forward to working with you. ˇViva democracia!)
or a professor like bell hooks (who proffered the below musings on the role of education:
REMEMBER THE THREE R’S.
Feminists understand that equality for women and girls will be sustained when government makes progressive education a national agenda. As we study and learn together we create community. Making literacy and democratic education available to everyone is the necessary foundation for responsible citizenship. Without education, diverse populations cannot communicate across boundaries.)
your imagination has been inspired...
Create enough changes and you might just be stepping into the territory of 'revolution'. Could we be happy with anything else?
Take a read of this text which I find much to scoff over - as a lover of postmodern discourse I am saddened that someone would attempt to leave it behind in favour of a new kind of totalising paradigm - and think about what kind of changes Obama symbolises for you...
By Rob Starr, the original text of whose can be found here(. The text was published on the 20th of January):
On behalf of the entire Integral community, I’d like to extend sincere congratulations to President Obama on his historic election. Today we witness not only millennia of human progress symbolized in another peaceful transfer of political power
Epiphanie: I'm sorry, but are you forgetting the violent transitions (including Communist revolutions and Latin American coups) that have needed to happen to ensure democracy emerges triumphant?
but also the first black American to accept service in United States’ highest office. I believe it possible that today may be remembered throughout history as a turning point for the human race. Today may mark the birth of the Integral Age.
A leader today - whether in business, religion, politics or otherwise - has to lead at a time not only when the span in age of those she leads is the greatest it’s ever been (due to longer life spans), but so too is the span in developmental stages the widest it’s ever been (due to the ever-expanding edge of human evolution). At no time in history has the diversity of perspectives been greater,
I believe human life has been very diverse in every epoch, it's just that we have a growing awareness of difference with the presence of mass media in our lives, to tell us about what people are doing and thinking thousands of miles away.
or the need more urgent for leaders who can reach across all perspectives and unite us in a common vision of responsibility and service.
Unity is a flawed ideal, created by people who are afraid of difference.
The leading paradigm for handling this diversity, multiculturalism (and its insistence that all views are equal), has failed under the weight of its own absurdity. After all, if all views are equal than we cannot even accept our own views with any real seriousness,
The 'all views are equal' cliche of postmodernism is recreated so as to explore themes of friendship, love, and even respect for casual acquaintances, perfect strangers and sworn enemies. I take my view seriously and playfully enough to appreciate it in context with all my non-related sisters and brothers on the planet. I don't understand this statement.
and we’re left to cope with our very own lives with either narcissism (“I am everything”) or nihilism (“I am nothing”).
I think that to intermingle aspects of both ideologies would be a worthwhile endeavour, and create something completely new out of those binaries. Though I do like the quote Deleuze and Guattari provide us here...)
(Today’s teenagers are the canaries in this coal mine, essentially screaming for a way out of the existential crisis they’ve been taught to espouse.) That 2008 provided such frequent and horrific examples of what goes wrong with both ends of this spectrum
Examples would be very handy here...
only underscores its symbolism as the year the Information Age ended (sort of loud and painfully, as these things often do...).
President Obama recognizes this unique moment in history and will call on all of us to join together in a unity that can be formed only in a cauldron of deep crisis and grand vision. Out of the ashes of a demoralized information age,
I am quite happy with my Information Age, actually - it brings me to such thought-provoking texts as this one, and even though I disagree, my passions are aroused and so am thankful for the opportunity to write in response.
broken as it has been by the limitations of a system too complex to bring to heel, arises the Integral Age, marked by a reconstructive paradigm that can integrate truth, values and action at all levels of diversity. A reconstructive paradigm can honor what has come before - tradition, responsibility, values, and long-cultivated social norms - while also manifesting a future vision not yet realized - progressive, compassionate, liberating and boundary-expanding.
I question that tradition, responsibility, "values" and "social norms" (what on earth is he referring to?) are helpful things, the way this guy is rendering them. This entire text is littered with generalisations which are infuriating for someone with academic training to respond to. At any rate, he seems to favour a fusing of 'old-world' values with 'new-world' spirit, and I cannot approve because the word 'liberating' is seen as the pinnacle of achievement in this narrative. You only need to read other texts to realise that liberation is something which is, by this stage, taken for granted in the light of Obama's agenda.
It is with great shock - and awe! - that the pundits in Washington are meeting the first Integral President. In President Obama they find a deep pragmatist who is concerned with the science of what works, the empiricism of results. They do not have a name for what he’s doing other than to say he is “post-cultural,” “post-racial,” and “post-partisan.” They don’t know that the word they seek is “Integral,” that in the embodied integral human the rigid walls of singular dogma are transcended such that all ideologies can be embraced when appropriate. (After all, all ideologies are real, having something important to contribute to our understanding of reality.)
This ability to fluently operate among and within all ideological positions creates a trans-ideological leader, one who can handle immense diversity through neither imposition of a single ideology as we find in traditional modes of human action, nor a deconstructive act of making all ideologies equally meaningful (and thereby meaningless) (bold mine) as we find in postmodern modes of action,
Is it so bad to long for the day when no one worldview is championed as the most relevant, resonant, revolutionary of all? For that is what we are promoting - mundane revolutions, everytime we attribute great wisdom to what a mainstream celebrity has said. Anyway: My love is the most important modus opernadi in my world, but I will not try to discourage you from attempting to make yours more relevant than mine. I will simply argue as fairly as I know how that your values appear to be in a drastic need of overhaul. I recommend you tune in to the frenzied hopes of postmodernists around the world as they welcome the opportunity to celebrate the mutlitude of perspectives they find not just in the outside world, but in themselves. To give each one the right to shine, to be loved, to be critiqued and to be celebrated. For this is what it's about - celebration.
but rather a reconstructive act of calling on the entire range of ideological positions if, as and when appropriate to address the task at hand. That Obama is doing this is suspicious to the traditional conservatives, scary to the liberals, and just confusing to the intelligentsia. And that he can do so while also appealing directly to our loftier visions of ourselves, compelling us to hope, is just inspiring.
How can the same leader ask Reverend Warren to provide an inaugural invocation; seek an unprecedented Keynesian stimulus package; seek to further socialize health care; have a private dinner with leading conservative intellectuals; and consider how to rein in devastating and unrealistic long-term social security and Medicare liabilities? How, indeed.
I guess we've come to harbour pretty low expectations of our leaders. That Obama seems to be so high above the average standard is worth talking about.
Embodying an integral view of the world, by definition, means seeking to integrate, to fully include everyone under the umbrella while also transcending the narrowness and partiality of each.
We are all perfectly partial, beautifully biased, sublimely subjective... there is no one-size-fits-all dream rhetoric, my perception of the sky above will inevitably be different to that of anything else - it's time to celebrate how powerful our radical individuality is!
(This, incidentally, is why every group that looks at Obama claims him as “one of them.” This is the ultimate litmus test of an integral leader.)
I think that Obama's appeal lies in his very understanding of the kind of ideology that thrives in postmodernity - a firm, familiar verbal and physical tread into previously unchartered waters. I am still struck by how he is able to appeal to both myself (a hardcore postmodernist) and modernists who adore their universalising metanarratives. Whatever I may say about him, Obama is really incredibly smart! His is a classic-meets-postmodern fragmented-yet-coherent kind of savvy which is as porous as it is slick and smooth. It's a machine which is oiled well enough to generate consistent results throughout a long time period. I'm sure that his Presidency will work out very well for him.
A great leader is one whose sense of self is not threatened by a vigorous war of ideas, and an integral leader is one who wages the war from a worldview of love and abundance.
While there is a minefield of massive structural problems that we collectively face, this is also Obama’s real opportunity: great trauma yields great open-mindedness to meaningful change. I believe that since the election Obama has been an Integral leader, and if he can continue to navigate the landscape of open-mindedness that exists while integrating all the perspectives that are already there waiting for him, than he can lead us through the birth of the Integral Age and may significantly evolve the dominant mode of political discourse and action.
Obama's gracefulness, confidence and verbal agenda will hopefully appeal to those that succeed him, and here's hoping that he is just the start of a very impressive line-up!
Through events such as Integral Spiritual Experience, State of the World Forum, Catalyzing Conscious Capitalism, and many others, I know that all of us in the Integral Life community will be doing our part to help him and his administration more deeply embody an integral path forward.
What kind of changes would I like to see Obama make? First of all, introducing same-sex marriage in all 50 states, and pressuring foreign governments to also legalise it as well. Margaret Cho is with me on this one. Second of all, pouring more money into education, with a particular emphasis on the arts. I would like to see Obama live up to his claim that he is a feminist by pro-actively advancing womens' rights, affirm the positivity that already exists in America regarding mutually beneficial interaction between different racial groups by advancing coloured people's rights (he will also be advancing the rights of whites, although I know it doesn't seem as important at this stage), and further advancing the rights of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and 'queer' community. After that, we can focus on disabled rights and the rights of many other minorities.
I am also hoping for a lot more pressure on non-Democratic countries. I would like to see the entire West wage war on any country which is not 'truly' democratic (especially those who use the name Democracy despite being totalitarian to the core).
China's brand of totalitarianism is a real threat to democracies everywhere and the peaceful dominance that America enjoys over the world, so I suggest Obama thinks very carefully about how to deal with them. For some reason, I think a war might actually be a good idea here. (I know this will be very unpopular
)
Finally, I'd like to see the President promote self-help as something that should be part of everyday life. Self-empowerment is so important to being a well-rounded individual, and it is often neglected, even by people in positions of great power.
I'd like to see personalities like Simon Cowell who are voted into a spot on national television because they have the ability to make witty insults off the top of their heads be put in their place - have it be promoted the idea that they are degrading themselves and others by being exhibitionistic about their abominably low self-esteem.
It's your turn now - what kind of changes would you like to see in the States (and hence the world)? Or do you fancy yourself a revolution?
DEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA:
I have received so many breathless letters myself and now it’s role reversal time. You have reawakened a disillusioned and passive electorate and begun healing racial wounds that have crippled us for centuries. I believe, like you do, that America today is not as intolerant and bitterly divided as we are encouraged to be by the mainstream media and the military industrial complex that dictates its messaging. It is my sincere hope that our national discourse will rise to your example and employ more humility and maturity in the political arena. I look forward to working with you. ˇViva democracia!)
or a professor like bell hooks (who proffered the below musings on the role of education:
REMEMBER THE THREE R’S.
Feminists understand that equality for women and girls will be sustained when government makes progressive education a national agenda. As we study and learn together we create community. Making literacy and democratic education available to everyone is the necessary foundation for responsible citizenship. Without education, diverse populations cannot communicate across boundaries.)
your imagination has been inspired...
Create enough changes and you might just be stepping into the territory of 'revolution'. Could we be happy with anything else?
Take a read of this text which I find much to scoff over - as a lover of postmodern discourse I am saddened that someone would attempt to leave it behind in favour of a new kind of totalising paradigm - and think about what kind of changes Obama symbolises for you...
By Rob Starr, the original text of whose can be found here(. The text was published on the 20th of January):
On behalf of the entire Integral community, I’d like to extend sincere congratulations to President Obama on his historic election. Today we witness not only millennia of human progress symbolized in another peaceful transfer of political power
Epiphanie: I'm sorry, but are you forgetting the violent transitions (including Communist revolutions and Latin American coups) that have needed to happen to ensure democracy emerges triumphant?
but also the first black American to accept service in United States’ highest office. I believe it possible that today may be remembered throughout history as a turning point for the human race. Today may mark the birth of the Integral Age.
A leader today - whether in business, religion, politics or otherwise - has to lead at a time not only when the span in age of those she leads is the greatest it’s ever been (due to longer life spans), but so too is the span in developmental stages the widest it’s ever been (due to the ever-expanding edge of human evolution). At no time in history has the diversity of perspectives been greater,
I believe human life has been very diverse in every epoch, it's just that we have a growing awareness of difference with the presence of mass media in our lives, to tell us about what people are doing and thinking thousands of miles away.
or the need more urgent for leaders who can reach across all perspectives and unite us in a common vision of responsibility and service.
Unity is a flawed ideal, created by people who are afraid of difference.
The leading paradigm for handling this diversity, multiculturalism (and its insistence that all views are equal), has failed under the weight of its own absurdity. After all, if all views are equal than we cannot even accept our own views with any real seriousness,
The 'all views are equal' cliche of postmodernism is recreated so as to explore themes of friendship, love, and even respect for casual acquaintances, perfect strangers and sworn enemies. I take my view seriously and playfully enough to appreciate it in context with all my non-related sisters and brothers on the planet. I don't understand this statement.
and we’re left to cope with our very own lives with either narcissism (“I am everything”) or nihilism (“I am nothing”).
I think that to intermingle aspects of both ideologies would be a worthwhile endeavour, and create something completely new out of those binaries. Though I do like the quote Deleuze and Guattari provide us here...)
(Today’s teenagers are the canaries in this coal mine, essentially screaming for a way out of the existential crisis they’ve been taught to espouse.) That 2008 provided such frequent and horrific examples of what goes wrong with both ends of this spectrum
Examples would be very handy here...
only underscores its symbolism as the year the Information Age ended (sort of loud and painfully, as these things often do...).
President Obama recognizes this unique moment in history and will call on all of us to join together in a unity that can be formed only in a cauldron of deep crisis and grand vision. Out of the ashes of a demoralized information age,
I am quite happy with my Information Age, actually - it brings me to such thought-provoking texts as this one, and even though I disagree, my passions are aroused and so am thankful for the opportunity to write in response.
broken as it has been by the limitations of a system too complex to bring to heel, arises the Integral Age, marked by a reconstructive paradigm that can integrate truth, values and action at all levels of diversity. A reconstructive paradigm can honor what has come before - tradition, responsibility, values, and long-cultivated social norms - while also manifesting a future vision not yet realized - progressive, compassionate, liberating and boundary-expanding.
I question that tradition, responsibility, "values" and "social norms" (what on earth is he referring to?) are helpful things, the way this guy is rendering them. This entire text is littered with generalisations which are infuriating for someone with academic training to respond to. At any rate, he seems to favour a fusing of 'old-world' values with 'new-world' spirit, and I cannot approve because the word 'liberating' is seen as the pinnacle of achievement in this narrative. You only need to read other texts to realise that liberation is something which is, by this stage, taken for granted in the light of Obama's agenda.
It is with great shock - and awe! - that the pundits in Washington are meeting the first Integral President. In President Obama they find a deep pragmatist who is concerned with the science of what works, the empiricism of results. They do not have a name for what he’s doing other than to say he is “post-cultural,” “post-racial,” and “post-partisan.” They don’t know that the word they seek is “Integral,” that in the embodied integral human the rigid walls of singular dogma are transcended such that all ideologies can be embraced when appropriate. (After all, all ideologies are real, having something important to contribute to our understanding of reality.)
This ability to fluently operate among and within all ideological positions creates a trans-ideological leader, one who can handle immense diversity through neither imposition of a single ideology as we find in traditional modes of human action, nor a deconstructive act of making all ideologies equally meaningful (and thereby meaningless) (bold mine) as we find in postmodern modes of action,
Is it so bad to long for the day when no one worldview is championed as the most relevant, resonant, revolutionary of all? For that is what we are promoting - mundane revolutions, everytime we attribute great wisdom to what a mainstream celebrity has said. Anyway: My love is the most important modus opernadi in my world, but I will not try to discourage you from attempting to make yours more relevant than mine. I will simply argue as fairly as I know how that your values appear to be in a drastic need of overhaul. I recommend you tune in to the frenzied hopes of postmodernists around the world as they welcome the opportunity to celebrate the mutlitude of perspectives they find not just in the outside world, but in themselves. To give each one the right to shine, to be loved, to be critiqued and to be celebrated. For this is what it's about - celebration.
but rather a reconstructive act of calling on the entire range of ideological positions if, as and when appropriate to address the task at hand. That Obama is doing this is suspicious to the traditional conservatives, scary to the liberals, and just confusing to the intelligentsia. And that he can do so while also appealing directly to our loftier visions of ourselves, compelling us to hope, is just inspiring.
How can the same leader ask Reverend Warren to provide an inaugural invocation; seek an unprecedented Keynesian stimulus package; seek to further socialize health care; have a private dinner with leading conservative intellectuals; and consider how to rein in devastating and unrealistic long-term social security and Medicare liabilities? How, indeed.
I guess we've come to harbour pretty low expectations of our leaders. That Obama seems to be so high above the average standard is worth talking about.
Embodying an integral view of the world, by definition, means seeking to integrate, to fully include everyone under the umbrella while also transcending the narrowness and partiality of each.
We are all perfectly partial, beautifully biased, sublimely subjective... there is no one-size-fits-all dream rhetoric, my perception of the sky above will inevitably be different to that of anything else - it's time to celebrate how powerful our radical individuality is!
(This, incidentally, is why every group that looks at Obama claims him as “one of them.” This is the ultimate litmus test of an integral leader.)
I think that Obama's appeal lies in his very understanding of the kind of ideology that thrives in postmodernity - a firm, familiar verbal and physical tread into previously unchartered waters. I am still struck by how he is able to appeal to both myself (a hardcore postmodernist) and modernists who adore their universalising metanarratives. Whatever I may say about him, Obama is really incredibly smart! His is a classic-meets-postmodern fragmented-yet-coherent kind of savvy which is as porous as it is slick and smooth. It's a machine which is oiled well enough to generate consistent results throughout a long time period. I'm sure that his Presidency will work out very well for him.
A great leader is one whose sense of self is not threatened by a vigorous war of ideas, and an integral leader is one who wages the war from a worldview of love and abundance.
While there is a minefield of massive structural problems that we collectively face, this is also Obama’s real opportunity: great trauma yields great open-mindedness to meaningful change. I believe that since the election Obama has been an Integral leader, and if he can continue to navigate the landscape of open-mindedness that exists while integrating all the perspectives that are already there waiting for him, than he can lead us through the birth of the Integral Age and may significantly evolve the dominant mode of political discourse and action.
Obama's gracefulness, confidence and verbal agenda will hopefully appeal to those that succeed him, and here's hoping that he is just the start of a very impressive line-up!
Through events such as Integral Spiritual Experience, State of the World Forum, Catalyzing Conscious Capitalism, and many others, I know that all of us in the Integral Life community will be doing our part to help him and his administration more deeply embody an integral path forward.
What kind of changes would I like to see Obama make? First of all, introducing same-sex marriage in all 50 states, and pressuring foreign governments to also legalise it as well. Margaret Cho is with me on this one. Second of all, pouring more money into education, with a particular emphasis on the arts. I would like to see Obama live up to his claim that he is a feminist by pro-actively advancing womens' rights, affirm the positivity that already exists in America regarding mutually beneficial interaction between different racial groups by advancing coloured people's rights (he will also be advancing the rights of whites, although I know it doesn't seem as important at this stage), and further advancing the rights of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and 'queer' community. After that, we can focus on disabled rights and the rights of many other minorities.
I am also hoping for a lot more pressure on non-Democratic countries. I would like to see the entire West wage war on any country which is not 'truly' democratic (especially those who use the name Democracy despite being totalitarian to the core).
China's brand of totalitarianism is a real threat to democracies everywhere and the peaceful dominance that America enjoys over the world, so I suggest Obama thinks very carefully about how to deal with them. For some reason, I think a war might actually be a good idea here. (I know this will be very unpopular
)Finally, I'd like to see the President promote self-help as something that should be part of everyday life. Self-empowerment is so important to being a well-rounded individual, and it is often neglected, even by people in positions of great power.
I'd like to see personalities like Simon Cowell who are voted into a spot on national television because they have the ability to make witty insults off the top of their heads be put in their place - have it be promoted the idea that they are degrading themselves and others by being exhibitionistic about their abominably low self-esteem.
It's your turn now - what kind of changes would you like to see in the States (and hence the world)? Or do you fancy yourself a revolution?
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